One of the critical requirements for smooth operation of a motor engine vehicle is the regular monitoring of oil levels. Indeed, oil lubricates the displacement of pistons in the cylinders of the engine, and should there be a shortage of oil, the piston would "grip" wherein the motor engine would rapidly become damaged usually beyond repair. There does exist dial displays for oil levels on the dash of automobiles. However, the data of such dials cannot be relied upon in an absolute sense wherein direct visual inspection is usually preferred.
Usual direct inspection of oil levels is made by effecting the following steps:
(a) open the hood of the car;
(b) seize and pull out the elongated dip stick from the crankcase upright tubular extension;
(c) wipe the calibrated end of the dip stick from all oil film deposit, e.g. with a fabric cloth;
(d) engage the dip stick into said tubular extension down to its lower limit position;
(e) again, withdraw the dip stick from the oil tank tubular extension;
(f) by direct visual inspection determine where the free end of the oil film on the dip stick registers with the scale of the calibrated end of the dip stick, e.g. a "full" level, a "safe" level, or an "add" level.
It is step (c) which renders this operation messy, in that the hands of the mechanic will often become contaminated with the oil, via diffusion of the oil through the fabric cloth used to wipe the dip stick.
It has been attempted in the past to improve the convenience of such step (c), in a variety of fashions. U.S. Pat. No. 4.017,935 issued in 1977 in the name of Reginaldo A. Hernandez, is a typical example of such improvement. With this patented dip stick cleaner, the dip stick can be inserted down through a slot made in a cleaner frame comprised of a resilient H-shaped flap (numeral 18 at FIGS. 1-3) so that the dip stick itself is within the dip stick tube, and as it is withdrawn from the dip stick tube, oil on the surface of the dip stick will be removed by the flaps contacting the dip stick. The free end edges of the flaps directly engage each other, in their unbiased position. These flaps are flexible, yet they exactly register with each other in their normal unbiased position: such construction has been empirically found to be inefficient by the present inventor.